Close to half of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from malnutrition, according to a UN report that’s expected to come out soon,

Egyptian security forces arrested one of the two suspected Palestinian terrorists believed to be plotting suicide attacks on tourist sites in Sinai, Al-Arabiya television network reported on Thursday evening.

As Iran yesterday defied the United Nations deadline for freezing its nuclear programme, its ambassador in London said that it had no intention of budging from its position. “For sure, we are going to stress our inalienable right . . . within the bounds of the NPT [Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty] …

It is an admission of defeat. Iraq is turning into one of the world’s bloodiest battlefields in which nobody is safe. Blind to this reality, Tony Blair said yesterday that Britain could safely cut its forces in Iraq because the apparatus of the Iraqi government is growing stronger.

Iran continues to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN Security Council ultimatum, a nuclear watchdog said today. In a report to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said:

Four Iraqi soldiers have been accused of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman and the attempted rape of her two daughters. It is the second allegation of sexual assault levelled against Iraqi forces this week.

World powers today worked on a response to Tehran’s defiance of a UN Security Council ultimatum on mothballing its uranium enrichment programme.

US military officials are worried about the increasing use of chemical bombs in Iraq.Insurgents yesterday exploded a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters – the second such “dirty” chemical attack in two days

Israel’s army has denied a Palestinian report that its forces had entered the southern Gaza Strip searching for smuggling tunnels.

India has banned the export of all material, equipment and technology which could contribute to Iran’s nuclear programme the Indian trade ministry said today.